Black Moon
by Corwin Sparrow
Summary: Mistress Nine is gone, but Black Lady remains. What are her plans for the Bishoujo Sailor Senshi? (Third Revision)


**Black Moon (Third Revision)**  
By Corwin Sparrow

"And she _wins_," huffed a pink haired wide hipped round breasted woman, fire-like in her regard of a young blond teenager through what seemed a silver mirror of water. She twirled, all grace in her lovely anger, black gowned: low cleavage, simple strapped ankle length and one thigh length slit in the curve favoring dress.

"She does not forget you, Lady," remarked a sphere which had the appearance of a black furred feline's face.

-

"Chibi-Usa…" pouted Usagi Tsukino with a deep throb of regret and loss. _"Little Usagi_… Sorry. I am very sorry!!"

Rei observed with some sympathy as the young woman burst into tears holding a framed picture of a sweet-faced little girl, pink haired and full of charm as much as trouble.

"Hm? Rei-chan? Why aren't you berating her?" Ami blinked, glancing up from her studies briefly.

"Ah, um - I don't know," she admitted. "Her getting all emotional is silly, hai…"

"But?"

Beyond raven hair and piercing eyes, a calm, concerned depth reached the young Priestess Hino Rei. The course-brushed broom halted its motions while she gazed solemnly at her blue haired, slender-bodied intellectual friend. Ami looked back quietly, awaiting an answer in her sweet, innocent patience.

"Mistress Nine is gone," she murmured after a moment. "Chibi-Usa now… we haven't talked about it much. Why didn't she change back?"

Ami set her white-cat patterned pen alongside her notes, her musings long spent. She let a long, soft sigh through her unpainted lips.

"Luna-san?" she began, knowing the feline guardian was listening despite her apparent nap.

"Hai?" yawned a high female voice from easily twenty paces. A Siamese-built short black-furred cat leapt nimbly from a nearby day table. "Hai Ami-chan? What is on your mind?"

"Usagi-chan won't ask, she doesn't have the courage now," Ami started, a grave tone in her voice. "But I think its time we actively pursued Black Lady."

-

"Oh no - silly Senshi," grinned a full, pink-lipped mouth sourly as Ami's sentence ended. "That choice is mine."

From a throne of twelve-foot tall crystals which had highlights like the bright magenta of a cloud-reflected sunset and the black tones of a beckoning abyss, the long legged woman strode through the crackling flashes of cool blue light that surrounded her wantonly toward a small, unoccupied room. Naught more than ten feet square, it contained a solitary portal of swirling blacks and rich glimmering violet light.

"Pluto my cool dark love, you were a fool," she remarked in brief remembrance. Her black nail-painted hands rose and guided through motions torn from the mind of the time guardian. "What _if_ there is more? What I want - no - _who_ I want, is here, now."

Arguments of time lines, disrupted lives, futures, hopes and dreams were discarded and altogether ignored for the sake of selfish desire. Black Lady would so soon be able to have her hearts' want. As the smooth, graceful motions neared their terminus an image brightened and focused in the glossy marble-black rim of the portal. A young Japanese man lay sleeping - in the way he had, so handsome looking and not in the least annoying - clothed in white and black pin-striped pajamas, dreaming most comfortably of his emotionally charged girlfriend, Tsukino Usagi.

"Usako -," he murmured groggily, "not like that -"

"Oho!" Black Lady clapped in delight. "_Hentai baka_ - but no. Too easy."

For a moment her hard, yet indomitably _sweet_ visage snarled in unpleasant seeming contemplation.

"You must suffer, and so…" she raised her arms elegantly, the left vertically, the right horizontally, the hand nearly touching the other elbow, and then paused. "Not like this. Not enough. Not nearly enough."

However, a broad, even nastier smile replaced the consideration upon her rounded face, and she clapped her hands together sharply, almost to the point of pain.

"Tonight my Princess. I will have everything."

-

"No no _no,_ I won't be long."

Makoto's hard expression made her reply a withering look.

"What?!"

"C'mon! Go!" she half complained, her own want for a steady boyfriend fuelling her impatience more than usual.

"Okay okay! I am going now!" she chuckled humorlessly, disappearing into the foyer through the main doors which clicked electronically shut behind her. As if swept by unseen hands she disappeared into the elevator, which proceeded to carry her up after a couple of swift taps on the silver control panel.

_Good thing Mamo-san gave me a key! _she thought, overjoyed by the thought of his company, and kiss. _I can wake him _very_ happily!_

The trip passed in naught more than an eye blink amidst Usagi's star lit daydream of Chiba Mamoru's strong embrace and gorgeous looks, where they would dance among the heavens, hold each other under the intense warm blue moonlight, or just stare into eyes and touch… a flush brightened her face over her tiny nose and along her cheeks. A floating sensation told her she had arrived, and somewhere between the smooth sliding closure of the elevator doors and a dozen paces to Mamoru's apartment door she stopped, a cold fire raced through her blood.

"Usagi-chan," Luna warned, having followed so delicately - as usual - that she had barely noticed; "you had better transform!"

"Does a stupid yoma have to be here? I wanted a kiss!" she whined uselessly. She pulled a white flower and star decorated locket from a pocket and shoved it as if through some form of resistance into the air. Unearthly powers replaced Usagi's magenta hooded pullover, white knee-length skirt, yellow short-sleeved shirt and assorted accoutrements with the sailor-suited uniform of her title: Sailor Moon.

Politely, Luna waited until the flashing lights and spinning girl settled until speaking.

"We still have more important matters to deal with, even after you banish this evil. Now let's go."

"Oh, okay," she sighed, resigned. "If you say so."

Her short skirted slender body almost trembled visibly as she entered the unusually dark room. Not a light shone; not even moonlight through the patio doors. It seemed mute; all sound hushed, where there might have been the hum of the refrigerator, there was none, nor any other similar noise. Not even of traffic several stories below.

In the air, she could almost taste a bitter tang - something like coffee - in a grey mist she perceived as her eyes adjusted to a ruddy gleam of sallow violet light.

"Mamoru?" she whispered cautiously. There was a shuffling of feet, and Usagi whirled on their orientation. A five foot ten male silhouette stood, feet shoulder width apart, from which an aura of obvious displeasure emanated.

"Always ready, hm Usako?"

"Uh? Mamoru?" she gasped inwardly, surprised by the feelings he exuded. Without thinking she summoned protective _ki._

"_Yes._ Where is Artemis, eh? Does he not know that you are here?" Mamoru inquired accusingly.

"Mamo-kun? What you say makes no sense!" Sailor Moon grimaced fearfully, her voice laden with puzzled tones. "Is something wrong?"

"You are so bold…" he began in a low, almost guttural hiss. His figure moved with such unanticipated speed that when he hit her, she only dimly realized, collapsed against a smashed wall, what had happened.

"_Mamoru?!"_ Luna cried, scrambling rather gracelessly to the girl's side. _It cannot be him!_

"_Uhn…"_ Sailor Moon groaned, an ache in her left shoulder as she opened her eyes to the presence of Mamoru's scowl. He gripped her sailor suit-styled uniform by the bow in his clenched hand and lifted her easily into the air.

"Foul yoma! Give up his form!" Luna demanded angrily. "What have you done with Mamoru?!"

The teenage warrior known by hundreds of thousands to be a champion for good, for hope, and for love, licked at her split lip and the odd sweetness of blood wearily, feeling as though a tremendous weight had been placed on her shoulders. What was normally supernatural strength felt as nothing more than a struggling foal. The left side of her face burned with pain, where his open hand had collided, and it seemed to have very simply _removed_ what she took for granted.

It was so much an uphill battle to reach out with well practiced mystic senses and read the familiar energy of her soul mate threatening at that moment her delicate life. Her heart sank, her large blue eyes deepening with an unbalancing fear.

Why… this is wrong. I know it! Why does he hit me? I must try to help him!

"Luna-chan! No!" she whimpered. "It is Mamoru!"

"Why do you do this Usako?"

He spoke with abrasive swiftness that caught her off-guard, thoughts whirling into a grey-brown pool.

"Uh?! Do what?!"

"Tempt me."

His words and mannerisms were so strange that she was not at first aware of his meaning, but then a hand crept underneath her navy blue micro skirt. Instinctively she brought her legs up and kicked at him, knocking him back with strength she did not feel.

"Mamoru please! Don't!" she cried frantically, the sting of betrayal overwhelming all thought of redemption. She brought her hands up to fold over her body in a warding fashion, not enjoying the fuku's appeal any longer.

"Mamoru! You… you bastard!" Luna shrieked, her little feline body trembling with a tsunami of emotions.

_So weak Mamoru - is it only that?_

"What else is there?" he bit back fiercely. "You don't know what it is to be with her."

_Perhaps, but you will do this for me._

Mamoru hissed uncharacteristically, and with two hands threw Usagi against the nearest wall, where she fell, her uniform shimmering and retreating.

_I have to get the girls!_ Luna thought desperately, barely escaping Mamoru's lightning grasp before bolting through the still open apartment door. She felt a flash of mortal fear in her neck and torso, moving as rapidly as her paws would carry her.

-

"Usagi? Usagi-chan! Why won't they answer?" Rei pulled back from the electronic doorbell system which had failed to procure a reply from their languishing companions. She folded her black coat clad arms sternly glaring out into the cloudless maroon sky.

"Something is wrong," concluded Artemis, a white-furred cat who was Luna's near twin, hopping down from Minako's sport jacketed arms. Her light blue eyes trailed after his pacing at the steel and glass doors that seemed to restrain him.

"It has been an hour," Ami observed, a slight worry on her lip. "Even for Usagi-chan this is extremely tardy."

"_Ya think?"_ Rei snapped with climbing tension. "This is just great! She's making time with Mamoru and we're freezing our butts off!"

"No Rei, Luna would not let her take so long," he corrected her, not stopping as he spoke. Minako caught a sliver of his enormous concern and walked over to him, wanting to take him in her arms again to offer comfort. "No Minako. Not now. We must get up there!"

"What're we supposed to do, break in?" demanded Makoto boldly, not so opposed to the idea. Rei whirled on her and shot her a look of complete disbelief.

"Calm _down!"_ she cried, not aware of the hypocritical weight of the command. "You're not helping."

The pig tailed brunette growled, arms folded over her blouse-clad breasts.

"Fine. What do _you_ think we should do?"

"You girls are going to transform," Artemis announced.

"Right!" they agreed in unison.

Four spectacular transformations took place; one Mizuno Ami in the blues and water elemental control of the station befitting Sailor Mercury; Hino Rei into the fire elemental and faith inspired power of Sailor Mars; Aino Minako, the gorgeous European blue eyed blond love strengthened Sailor Venus; and the browns and greens of uniform and earthen strength and powers of Sailor Jupiter.

These were gifts; in power, strength and what could be called superhuman resilience bestowed by realms understood only instinctively by each young warrior. They answered to one call only: To guard and protect their Moon Princess, a dedication taken at a point in age almost too young to understand, yet borne with a loyalty that was too strong to be denied.

Tension drifted in the picturesque scene of four Pretty Sailor Soldiers standing before an apartment building now like a tower built to the progression of all unholy. In joined purpose, as in uniform, their petty arguments were obliterated.

"I'll take a reading," Sailor Mercury offered, tapping her tiara at the left side so that a blue visor appeared in the passing of rain in front of her eyes. Even Sailor Jupiter folded her arms over her stomach, betraying her deep seated discomfort. Some barely audible electronic mulling occupied the seconds between Mercury's silence and her next words.

"There is nothing I can detect. No active _ki_, no yoma, and no people. There is something highly usual about this."

There was a collective gasp, and what sounded like a wet bag slapping against glass.

"Luna!" Artemis cried.

"_Graaaah!"_ Makoto shrieked, grabbing the inside handles of the door and wrenching them open so that the steel framed glass scattered everywhere. The girls rushed in to the broken little body of their guardian. Luna blinked slowly at them, the moon crescent on her forehead marred by crimson.

"Save the Princess," she breathed faintly, a drowning sensation joining the blindness and frigid numbness that was dragging her down.

"Luna… who did this?" Minako whispered - voice low and strained, kneeling close to the battered cat.

"Mam…" she coughed, suffocating as blood filled her small lungs. "Magh… Mamoru…"

Something like a chorus of sobs moved through the four young women, seeing as much as sensing the death of a much loved companion and protector.

"Save her…"

-

"Oh my sister," breathed what seemed _pleasured_ in the female and dulcet. "You will understand soon."

Usagi lay, naked, bruised in places she would never have imagined in nightmares possible. Mamoru had left nothing unsavaged, having in ways he only could, what it seemed he suddenly desired. A faint trail of blood wafted from the high inside of her thigh.

Before turning the task nigh at hand, she faced that silver pool-mirror and watched as the senshi burst in upon a moonlit but empty room. Red faces and tear-streaked cheeks gazed in horror at the destruction of almost every furnishing in the living room.

"What happened…" Sailor Jupiter grimaced, terror making her knees weak.

"Mercury… do you see anything?" Mars hesitantly asked, as if afraid disturbing the aftermath of Usagi's ruin.

Beyond the silver-pool, Black Lady's face tensed slightly.

"Uh," she tapped her visor and consulted her compact computer. "Let me see. Yes. Now I am seeing some residual traces of _ki_. They must have been too faint to detect from the ground floor."

Sailor Jupiter walked over to Mamoru's collapsed table, where she took in her hands several shreds of cloth. When she returned she held a red bow and a bundle of creased blue cotton. She looked forward with watery eyes, a dark truth becoming very plain to her.

"Where is she?" she murmured nigh hopelessly. "Princess…"

Lethargically, they searched the apartment, and soon departed with no clue as to the cause of her disappearance.

"Perfect. Divine," Black Lady smiled satisfactorily, allowing the image in the pool-mirror to subside into a mere reflection of its surroundings. "What better way to smash their dreams, I dare not think. How delightful!"

The wide-hipped woman spun gracefully, driven to dance briefly by her success and flight of emotion. An opaque scarf-like length of pink satin followed her svelte motions, hovering above her shoulders and touching the insides of her forearms, yet not once catching nor inhibiting her movements.

Her expression of sincere joy came to a halt as her body did before the disheveled blond at her mercy. She lowered her eyes and made a few small triggering gestures, causing a sallow violet energy to course through her prone, abused sister. Gradually, in subconscious reaction, Usagi murmured wordlessly, her inner wealth of _ki_ influenced dramatically by the violating negative energy.

As Chibi-Usa had, in becoming Black Lady, Usagi aged slightly, her body gaining curves not previously evident. Black Lady's dark eyes opened while the spell completed her desired alterations. Usagi's crescent - glowing with a resistant, stricken light - reversed its orientation, and deepened to match Black Lady's midnight violet upon her forehead between tense, near touching eyebrows.

"Mm…"

"Um? Already?" Black Lady inquired of no one but herself.

"Bakayaro…" she whispered, breathing shallow, the power still quite overwhelming. "Shimatta."

"Nani…?" Black Lady uttered, raising her voice slightly as she approached. She then froze in near total shock as Usagi's then dark blue eyes bolted open.

"What now? You _desire_ me - and used him, hai sister?" she sat up easily, no shame in her stunning nudity. "Childish ploy."

"Perhaps," she replied tentatively. "Are you displeased?"

"_Hardly…"_ she grinned seductively, reaching forward and drawing the shapely woman to her lap and kissing her fully upon the lips.

-

The night, fragrant with trees and the mist of on setting winter, bit any daring enough to travel beyond warmth sealed doors and windows of towering apartment buildings and low slung houses that littered Japan like a mass of densely collected discolored freckles. The social discomfort that had spread was more than the result of the sudden weather, as news dispersed almost more rapidly than the Atlantic winds themselves.

_'Sailor Moon , champion of Japan,_ _has disappeared in circumstances that are more than questionable,' _the Media declared. '_Our apologies for lack of sources and information…'_

Additionally, the remaining Inner Senshi seemed reluctant - rather, nigh wholly incapable - of filling her high heeled red boots, and the position of sanctuary from besieging _yoma _- demons - that she unerringly upheld. Surely they tried, but the morning would see results they did not intend.

"There is no explanation," indicated a short blue haired girl stiffly. It had been days since the death of Luna, and still - as Ami said - they had no hint as to the identity of her murderer. Mamoru had not turned up since, and they could only hope he had not been brainwashed again, or worse. The ramifications were simply too frightening to conceive.

Not that they _had_ to.

"Artemis-san…" Minako hesitantly whispered, listening to his restrained gasps of anguish.

"Hm?" he sniffed. "I am… I don't know. But… so much I did not say to her… it is all gone."

Rei peered at him regretfully.

"You loved her," she observed dimly. Makoto's gaze shifted from the Priestess and to the grave, gossamer blossoms of bright red, vibrant yellow, and warm pink surrounding it.

"We'll get them. I swear it," she vowed, hands under folded arms winding into fists. A shrill flash of Makoto's idle rage hit Rei with such force that she nearly felt winded.

"Yes, but first we need to figure out who did this," Ami pointed out. "Anger will not behoove us now."

This was answered by a low growl.

"You don't understand!" she snapped with an icy glare, nostrils flaring, dropping arms to her side. "Whoever it is won't wait for us to say 'you're it'. They will kill someone else."

Through the small procession a gasp of disbelief sounded, save the speaker.

"You can't mean that!"

Makoto whirled on Rei, and instinctively she flinched. Slowly, she opened her eyes, aghast at her friend's wild temperament. Clad in light blue jeans, dark green halter top and yellow long sleeved jacket, she was halfway towards the temple's steps leading to the dull grey street before Rei could muster a more logical response.

"Makoto! Wait!"

… or not. Uselessly, Rei blinked at Ami and Minako, who looked more sullen and lost than she felt. Beyond the squat silhouette of the temple a copper shaded magenta sunset exploded in low hanging clouds. It was an expanse of minutes - what passed in their minds as hours - before they roused from admiration of this view, suddenly aware of foreign auras.

"Grampa-san?" Rei called hopefully, then recalled he was gone for the week. She fought the tension winding through her body, and forced herself to relax. Four presences, fraught with the shadow of evil's light were suddenly so close it was as if she could lay a hand upon their collective aura.

"Artemis-san, we are surrounded," she whispered. "Four Negaverse creatures are nearby."

The diminutive feline swallowed and cleared his throat, then issued commands.

"Transform! Ami, take a reading! Minako… _get Makoto!"_

Their four transformations transpired swiftly, leaving only orders to be carried out. Sailor Venus leapt some twenty nimble feet into the air, spied Makoto, and then bolted after her, while Ami activated her visor and assessed their situation.

"They are strong, and have a lot of _ki_. It looks like they are _ki_-vampires," she reported. "I think they have been feeding."

Mars glanced at Mercury dubiously.

"How do you know that? I have never seen that kind of creature before!" she demanded. Mercury chuckled and shrugged.

"I just named them. I can see their intent, and then my visor tells me what they can do," she demurred. "Now we can't worry about little things like that."

In the meantime, Venus caught up with Makoto, her body again trembling with emotion.

"Makoto-chan!" Sailor Venus cried after the fuming young woman, landing in front of her on one knee. "Transform! The temple is being attacked!"

"Oh good! A chance to vent," she grinned. _"Sailor Jupiter - Make Up!"_

"What?" Venus gaped. _"Vent?"_

"_Bubble Blast!"_ Sailor Mercury declared, sweeping her arms forward in a graceful motion while dozens of silvery transparent spheres swirled out into the garden, becoming a tangibly moist haze through which they could barely see. Mars, uninhibited by Mercury's distracting power, oriented on the most powerful and began the motions of her most powerful attack.

Six of the silver-grey beasts paraded through the garden, shattering concrete ornaments and desecrating the grounds with purpose and knowledge of just how these things were done. It struck Mercury to wonder who was directing them.

"Stop her!" cried the tallest of the half-dozen humanoid beasts. _"Take her!"_

Something in the creature's attitude caused a black pulse in her gut. Obeying the impulse to move, claws grazed her thigh, raking across her smooth skin.

"Ow! _Mars Flame Dra-"_ A hand caught her mouth while other limbs wrapped around her body some in a more intimate fashion than she desired. _Damn!_

"Let her GO!"

Mars spun and tumbled, the movement accompanied by a deft loud _crack._ The body of Mars' opponent burst into dust and joined the rapidly dissolving mist created by Sailor Mercury.

"That one too! Take them all!"

Sailor Jupiter smiled openly at the odds: Two twelve foot multi-armed enemies appeared out of the cool dark shadows, joining the first, yellow aura lit leader.

"Remarkable!" cheered a sultry, broad-hipped young woman, watching the scene through a well used silver pool of seeing.

"Do not be so impressed," refuted another much like her, though blond of hair and slightly slimmer of curve and line. "How can you have them crushed in that way?"

"I… it is the way it has been done always," she negated. "Am I wrong?"

"Look at them and think on it. The more you push the stronger they will become! This is a wasteful ploy."

Black Lady faced her sister - and now lover - with great doubt in her crystal eyes. It was indeed, so it seemed. Jupiter proceeded to defeat the _Hikari_ without breaking a sweat. The leader gave her hope, taking the blond aside and successfully taking advantage of her as commanded, only to be banished within moments of briefly violating her.

"In minutes there will be another. Won't it do?" Black Lady nigh pleaded sweetly.

"We will see, will we not?" Black Usagi sighed gloomily.

Patiently the pair scrutinized the actions of the Senshi - the comfort, the support, and overall care with which they treated Sailor Venus - and prepared to escape in the event of another attack. It was puzzling that they could have so much compassion without desire, of the sort they understood.

"This is friendship. Your Luna ball gives you that, hai?"

"Um," she pursed her full lips prettily. "Hai. I suppose you are right. But not you, we are more Usagi-sama."

"Black Usagi," she reminded her curtly. "That is true."

The four senshi had dispersed their enemy, with exhaustive effort that drained them of stamina emotional and physical. It was as much as they could bear to rise and expect another attack. Mars barked further orders, and lacking better judgement, they obeyed her directive and left the sanctified temple grounds for Jupiter's home, where they had hope of recovery.

Unfortunately, the final part of Black Lady's plan literally dropped on the gathered four like a boulder, dening them respite and what little peace they could afford. It had piercing yellow-white angular eyes, was nearly ten feet in height, and resembled a stone-skinned golem with blocky, granite like features and an overdeveloped musculature.

With four of its six arms it scattered the startled Senshi and fixed its attentions upon the physically inept Sailor Mercury. She restrained a high wail as the bone in her upper arm snapped somewhere between the elbow and shoulder, and rolled for several feet as it tossed her like a sack of reeds towards the temple wall. She lay motionless, heaving cool air through her dry throat, gasping in agony.

Jupiter, still stunned, only heard the cries of the other two before her wits surrounded her, accompanied by the renewing strength of her resurfaced fury. Nearly overwhelmed by the speed and outrageous physical prowess of the creature, she feigned to notice the Minako's head wound and Rei's awkwardly bent right leg.

"Damn! How can she be so strong? How can we win… you are right!" Black Lady blurted suddenly.

"I have seen to that," replied the other with a subtle smile. "You will see, chibi-chan."

Jupiter began to tire gradually as the battle wore on. Nonetheless, her strikes maintained a near blinding speed, even with the complication of continued dodging of the multiple limbs of her opponent, which showed no sign of imitation:

"It's not weakening!"

"I don't know what do to!" Artemis shouted, having regained his senses. "I need time to think!"

Sailor Mars readied a charm, and with a wince of pain from sitting up, _sent_ the charm towards the beast, only to have it slip onto Jupiter's forehead. Stunned more than hurt, the brawny Senshi tumbled backwards, the flow of her physical attacks disrupted.

"Oops! - _ow!_ - Oh geez!!"

Artemis frowned dubiously at his dear European friend, who trembled noticeably as she staggered to her feet. She breathed deeply, blood trailing in several thick lines from her yellow-gold hair - not uttering a single noise of pain though four ribs had been splintered in her torso - and nodded: _I can do it Artemis-san._

_Are you sure?_ he mouthed back.

Hai! Please let me!

"Venus - attack! _Now!!"_ Artemis commanded deftly, grasping at this miniscule opportunity.

"Venus Love Chain Encircle!"

A glowing string of hearts punched through the porous torso of the hulking beast, and as it collapsed - turning into dust somewhere along the line - it emitted a short whining screech.

"_Ite! Ite ite!_ Get it off!" Jupiter cried, her fingers hissing and burning through white gloves as she attempted to tear the charm free. "It hurts! _Ite!_ Help me!"

"Come here!" Mars cried, tears streaking over her face from the pain. "Hurry Jupiter!"

_It shouldn't!_ she thought as she removed the enchanted paper charm upon Jupiter's swift but distracted arrival. _Only… oh no…_

"Ha! Look at them. They are in ruins. This is lovely!"

"Hm?"

A blond haired woman gazed boredly upward from the silver pool-mirror at the grinning face of Black Lady. She offered only a slight frown, placing her pink gloved hand in the pool to create shimmering ripples. A huff expanded her ribcage and drew the black cloth of her dress tight against her breasts.

"It is waste of time," she snorted derisively. "I have done more already to have their undoing, replete with their power in my hands."

"Please, darling… I do not understand," she began plaintively, rising from the pool-side and standing before her throned sister. "This is not what you desire?"

"Not in this way."

Black Lady leaned forward, and, taking Usagi's chin in her slender hands, lowered her mouth to the dark reverse crescent between her thin blond eyebrows. A crease formed as the lips departed, and Usagi's discontent bubbled to the surface as she gripped and squeezed the hand of her lover.

"Forgive me, Black Usagi-sama."

"No, do not mind that," Black Usagi demurred, bringing Black Lady's hand to her mouth and pressing it to her lips briefly. "You have not erred. They suffer, and that is as it should be for them."

"Yes, but I have not seen what you have done. I am most curious!"

"I will not say," she replied, her eyes tracing their activities for a telltale moment. Black Lady's eyes followed hers.

"Then you do. The same as I, desire them?"

"Always," she replied, "the student adopts the way of the teacher, neh? Yet with more ambition, chibi-chan."

Black Lady held her with wondrous, glinting eyes.

"My Moon, you surprise me," she said slowly. Usagi replied only by kissing her hand again and taking it in hers as she stood and gestured a directional movement. For a space of time - one seeking quietly the other in unfettered grasps of illicit pleasure they watched the four Pretty Sailor Soldiers spend time in hospitals and homes of varying familial arrangement.

Ever so swiftly the time came when they were ready - as their strength would allow - to seek their Moon Princess once again. Though it was clearly a matter handled as if with wax paper gloves and no skill. There was a hope that the yoma may provide clues, in word, or by consulting the forces that summoned them. In practical terms, little was gleaned.

With nothing else to draw on, a dire helplessness was nigh unavoidable. This was a villain with wiles - and power - more than they had previously known or imagined possible. Mortality - theirs in specific - was akin to a very svelte thread.

"Usagi-sama, do you see? In each of them, an aura of such power they feign to understand!"

Black Lady, by calling Usagi "sama" - the Japanese word appellation meaning "Lord" - confirmed the formula of their relationship, in part formed by the degree of their power. Yet it was also Black Lady's wish - as the younger - to be in some small way _owned_ by her betrayed Princess.

"Hai."

"Only you kept them from utter annihilation, sister," she continued, placing her head on Usagi's soft round shoulder. Usagi was silent, her hand tensing in Black Lady's sporadically. A quick reading told Black Lady she had want - but it was more than the simple lust that permeated her.

"But now… they stand on their own."

"My Moon?"

"Hm…" she responded distractedly, loosing her hand and rounding to the opposite end of the pool so as to face her wondering lover. "I see… what you say. It is true…"

"Uh?"

"Galaxia would fear me - if I had their power," she determined with such unbridled bravado and arrogance that Black Lady was beside herself with surprise at her tenacity. "Do you not agree, chibi-chan?"

"I… oh, but, Usagi-sama, this is so… very bold!"

Usagi laughed in a way that made Black Lady's blood run ten degrees colder.

"Then watch if you like," she offered, baiting the woman simply. Black Lady swallowed, displeased by the idea of being separated from her sister. Such a creature she had created!

"Forgive me Black Usagi-sama. I am yours."

"I know," she grinned, teeth obscured by her full lips. "So soon will they."

---

"Minako - you're late already!" bleated a small, yet fierce male voice. Under a pink, white bunny and flower patterned comforter she groaned and tossed, hair loose beneath her becoming somewhat tangled. Claws pinpricked into her shoulder through white pajamas.

"Artemis_-san!_ Ite! Stop!"

Abruptly the mildly painful nagging ceased, replaced by a high extended feline scream and the wide spray of blood. It almost was not enough to feel the scattered chunks of flesh like improperly mashed potatoes. Even when she rolled over to sit up did reality strike her like a wrecking ball.

"No NO… Artemis!!!"

Bolt upright and directly out of her gore spattered bed she flew, staring numbly at the blue eyes that blinked _once_ and did not close as tears sprang to hers.

"Ahh... aaah.. gaaah - oh – _oh no!"_ she shrieked almost hysterically, frozen in body while in her sense heightened shock and horror she located several parts of her dismembered Guardian. Slowly, face marred by nauseating revulsion she reached with shaking hand towards his upside-down head.

"Aaaagh!"

Beside the torso her arm, severed just below the elbow, landed while she clambered back against her off-white dresser as agony pierced her mind, lancing up from the crimson stump.

"_Minako -"_ hissed a familiar dulcet. Breathing laboured, covering the shorted limb with the other against her stomach, she strained to peer up at its source.

"Usagi-chan?"

"Black Usagi. Fool girl! Get it right you _whore!"_ she snarled in vicious Japanese.

"Why?' she began a tense grimace, glancing down as the warmth of her own blood soaked slowly through her yellow pajama shirt. In the dark tones of a hip-hugging dress and transparent white coat Usagi made a faint motion.

"_Aaagh!"_ she wailed, her voice rising and then falling away in a whining pitch.

Usagi did not entertain amusement, stepping forward, Minako prostrate, a pool forming underneath her left leg where the thigh no longer met.

"Die Minako."

"No," she rasped, tasting bitterly the crimson source of life as she did so. "You can't destroy me."

Without moving, a silver light rose, and even though she could not raise her head, she felt its intense energy.

"Die."

-

"What do you mean 'not now'? It's going to burn!"

"Oh! I usually let it," chirped a feminine voice under an ocean like expanse of blue-green hair. "Not on _purpose_ though!"

Makoto laughed good-naturedly, glancing sidelong at the Outer Senshi's tan haired companion.

"You _like_ burnt tofu?" she grinned.

Hakura bowed her head with an expression of clear distaste.

"No, but I don't cook…"

"Liar," Michiru smiled, serving three plates of tofu, sweet and sour pork and rice. "You'd just rather eat at McDonald's than labor in the kitchen."

"They say I have a strong stomach," she winked charmingly at Makoto, who flustered briefly.

"You do," Michiru agreed. "To eat my food!"

"Yeah," Hakura replied fondly, touching Michiru's hand has she set a plate nimbly in front of her.

Makoto's face reddened slightly as a passionate look passed between them.

"Oh, uh - look! I made some lemonade," she blurted, whirling towards her refrigerator. "Real lemon juice and everything."

"Hm?" Michiru started, turning on one foot. "Hai, please, Mako-chan."

Shortly Makoto produced a white jug and three transparent plastic glasses, which she placed and filled just over three quarters full each. She then removed her frilly-edged apron and knelt to the left of Michiru at the low table.

"Do we make her so nervous?" Michiru wondered in hushed tones.

"Hai sweetness. It is because of her curiosity."

"We _could_ talk to her."

"I have. She will not relent, not now with Usagi missing. We do not need to seem so impulsive, do you agree?"

"Yes. Afterwards, maybe."

"Hm," she started, betraying an inner sense of powerful distress and doubt. "I think we will see."

There was, if one had the ability to see the movement of energy between the three young women, a exchange of emotion and _ki_ between Haruka and Michiru. Makoto, on the other hand, seemed to stew in her own desires, conflicted though they were.

"Mako-chan," Haruka started, voice deliberately audible to the young warrior. Makoto gazed at her with mixed emotion in her deep brown eyes. "The other Senshi are all right, would you say? And Minako, too?"

"What? I - I don't understand."

The two Outers exchanged troubled looks.

"She was not at school," Michiru explained. "Artemis is missing now, too."

Something like a storm befalling her internal sunshine (as it was) echoed in her face.

"Please answer," she continued, calmly adamant. "It is important."

She set down her chopsticks, lips twisted in musing, and then stated:

"I… I don't know. Did you visit her?"

Haruka's lean body neared her.

"Hai. She was not there," she indicated gravely, then added hastily: "There is something you must see."

Makoto was coldly distraught, reading plainly that something was seriously amiss. With a word Hakura leaned to one side, hand diving into a handbag on a nearby glass stand. A dark sliver of shock ran through the pony tailed brunette as her eyes locked upon the object she retrieved. A four pointed star, the top and side points of equal lengths, the bottom easily four times that (some four inches) with a purple crescent moon pierced by the upper and side points, came to rest not more than a foot before Makoto. An unnameable heavily tangible energy radiated from the talisman, and seemed to take Makoto in its grip.

"We found this in her room."

Silence.

"Mako-chan?"

Before Hakura could react, Makoto's arm swung out in a fist and caught Michiru's cheek, sending her like a shapely sack of flower against the wall. Her head rocked backward and collided loudly against a concealed beam, rendering her unconscious. Hakura leapt up instantly, seeing the amber light in Makoto's eyes as the indicator of the foreign influence. Somehow her Senshi uniform appeared as she excused herself in abrupt alarm. Sailor Jupiter snarled at a gaping Sailor Uranus, adorned in her own second-stage fuku.

"Let us fight – woman to woman!" Jupiter uttered in a low challenging tones.

"Mako-chan! What is this!?"

"_Sparkling Wide Pressure!"_

"EH?! _Earth Quaking!"_

The yellow sphere careened at Jupiter's much smaller utterance of energy, and in meeting the two spurned warriors were wordlessly catapulted backwards by the concussion waves of conflicting power.

_Don't lose it - stay cool!_ Uranus reminded herself sardonically, nudging her way out of a wall and Makoto's immaculate bathroom. Just as she emerged a gloved fist yanked her by the bow and neckline forward - directly into Jupiter's bent knee - over which she doubled.

"Uhngg!"

Using both hands to grip her narrow shoulders, Jupiter slung Uranus like a dense winding of rope at the couch. She flipped over it, landing on her _neck_ at floor contact. Literally nauseous with pain, Sailor Uranus rolled over, heaving and retching in time to accept a resounding kick at her ribcage, where she felt bones splinter and shatter. A languishing cry snapped out of her blood trailed mouth, and she fell onto her stomach.

"_Excellent_ Makoto. Do not kill her, but bind her," hissed a dark voice.

"Hai."

Whimpering in taut agony, Uranus was deaf to Jupiter's one-sided conversation, but did realize - by the completion of the task - that she was upright, and trussed by _but expertly._

"Neptune awakes. Do not compromise her power by anything you would do to her."

"But!"

"No! If you damage her power you will have _no haven!"_

Sourly, she gazed at the lovely, prone body of Michiru, adorned now in the short skirt and curve favoring sailor top of her Senshi uniform. Loudly her heart thudded in her chest and ears, a strange torrid desire pulsing in her slender frame.

"Hai omae-sama. Your will is mine," she grudgingly relented. "Either way I will have the tempting _whore."_

"Hunh?" Uranus sputtered, eyes wide with horror. "No! Michiru-chan!"

Jupiter caressed her slender chin as the voluptuous ocean blue haired girl roused from her pain-induced stupor.

"Sailor Jupiter…" she mumbled, then, upon spying her severely beaten lover; "Uranus! But… who… who did this?"

"She fought back, I had no choice."

"You… you?! Mako-chan… I don't… I… no!"

In a perverted sort of sympathy Makoto watched the tears begin to flow from Neptune's multi-toned blue eyes, and wanted in a way she had never in more than fantasies to kiss her. She was so utterly… lovely, helpless as she was.

"You are beautiful Michiru. I have always wanted you to know I think so," Jupiter pronounced sweetly, carefully for Uranus' benefit.

"What? But only Hakura and I… I understand you are curious, but…" she gasped, frowning in penetrated sorrow.

Somehow Michiru could not help recognizing the awkwardness of Makoto's forcible kiss, and the fierceness behind it. Gasping sharply as their lips parted, she searched for words, but could only stare at Uranus' useless fury.

"I won't be for much longer," Jupiter leered, hands moving roughly over Neptune's sailor suited body.

-

"Child's play," grinned a red-eyed young woman, sitting back, her broken-in-two-places-leg in a rigid cast.

"Well yes, but isn't it a child's game?"

Rei snarled, her eyes flicked up briefly from the brightly animated television screen. Ami set down the beige controller and adjusted her position to favor her cast encumbered left arm.

"For _you_ maybe, Ami-chan. I will never challenge you again."

Ami allowed herself a sweet-looking giggle, then returned to her studies.

"It was a nice break. Thank you Rei-chan," she bowed her head long enough for the intended recipient to notice.

"_Ugh._ Haven't you prepared enough for the tests?"

Ami's crystal blue eyes widened as if appalled by the concept of ill-preparedness.

"These are _finals,_ Rei-chan. Because of the time I spent in the hospital my preparation time has been compromised. I will stop when we eat."

Rei released a prolonged sigh.

"We'll see," she snipped back, allowing the all-consuming game to draw her into disassociation.

"You are wasting time."

Both girls froze.

"Uh?!"

The blips of defeat emitted from the game went unavenged as they rose to seek the source of the voice.

"You may _have been_ my intellectual superior, Ami, but change is truly a personal path through many adversities."

In the Shoji doorway stood a girl, no subtlety in her curves, or expression - glowering with a harsh frown at her two former friends.

The recognition was instantaneous.

"Usagi-chan?" Rei blurted, grasping a charm and struggling to rise as she grasped her crutches.

"No!" Ami gritted at her through her teeth. "Stay there."

_This is bad!_

"The probability of - oh hell - Usagi-chan, this is impossible. It should not have occurred," the blue haired girl gasped, unfurling long legs and slender arms and un-easing herself into defensive stance, aware that she was pulling double duty. "The ginzuisho should have neutralized any attempts to influence your mind!"

"Neutralized my true desire? This is what you think?" Usagi retorted fiercely. A silhouette formed behind her, and as light revealed her, she took Usagi's hand.

"Black Lady!"

The Ami held her trembling stance with little resolve that remained, while Rei felt as though she was being assaulted from all corners. A look of destitute _loss_ passed between them. Neither knew the fates of the others. With a smug smile, Usagi raised her free hand, and in it the bows from the Senshi she had slain.

Rei broke first, numbly rolling to one side in a pool of her own tears, face bright with overwhelming grief. _Just_ as anticipated. Ami, however, exhibited greater, unexpected resolve.

"All dead?" she inquired bravely, as if under no threat.

"Their _power_ - their essences, Mizuno Ami. I own them."

"What would you _do?"_ she demanded, taking a bold step forward.

"Don't you know, little blue girl?" Black Lady interjected, gazing at her for traits of beauty rather than as an opponent, and moving forward to match her approach.

"Yes. What other course would there be now..." she replied, beset by an unearthly calm.

"Hah! Your lightning quick mind percieves! And you, now…" she barked humorously, head rocking back on her shoulders. "Do you wish to simply submit?"

"My Princess -"

Usagi paled, face tensing.

"Forgive us, we have failed you."

Rei's sobbing ebbed, then came to a halftone standstill. Rei sat up, grasping a single crutch so that she could gaze red faced, but steadily at Black Usagi. Then she bowed deeply, albeit ungainly: Head low, one arm wrapped around the wooden crutch, completely vulnerable. What lancing pain thundered through her leg she bore in honoring silence. Usagi made no move as Ami followed suit.

_My Lady Moon, they beg us… they offer what you want! Why not do it?_

Black Usagi hummed intermittently, approaching Rei, a shard of blade-like violet light in her left hand. An abyss of uncounted depths assaulted her judgment. Black Lady gazed at her from a hazy dreamlike distance, and she prepared to kill the girl with whom she had conflicted most in her adolescent life.

They would now, though, just as before, give their very lives for her - without a contrary notion. In this instant! Savagely…

(blood sprayed up along her chest and stomach)

selfishly

(a short gurgle of pain)

she would have her way. Ami made no noise as Rei

(sliced up good'n'tender like bread)

fell beside her, eyes wide, mouth open like a gutted fish. Usagi was there, she felt, and the blade swept through her

(like the knives of winter's ice, running through her quickening veins)

and Ami too, lay apart with her murdered friend.

"Usagi-sama…" Black Lady smiled.

"It is not enough, you must see," spoke the other, as if in mid-thought. Not two steps from Black Usagi's side she halted entirely, face stolid and cold.

"What...?"

While the need for the purple lightning-like blade had apparently fled, the energy projection of _ki_ had not. Black Usagi raised her arm in an arc, and upward through Black Lady's chest the flaring light entered, and exited just below the nape of her neck.

"_Ite…"_ she whispered, pale as the moon.

Soundlessly Black Usagi let the weapon's presence falter, creating a crimson gap in her ex-lover's torso. Like an expertly carved doll Black Lady fell forward into her awaiting arms. Undoubtingly she blinked up at her sister, and as her eyes glazed into a waxy magenta, she slumped forward, her weight seeming to double.

"I am so very sorry, chibi-chan," she murmured, mouth close to the dead girl's ear.

Black Lady's shapely body rolled forward into heap against the desecrated parts of her friends as Usagi's form took on a transparent quality, which was then followed instantly by cold incorporealitiy and a roiling mass of confused pain.


End file.
